We are Family

Countdown

Something fun (eg. Game, video, etc.). It is not necessary for this to have a tie in to the lesson, but it can.

Introductions

This is culture

Basic Opening Statement: We are glad that you are here with us at bcsm. Now remember that stands for bridgetown church student movement now. That changed a couple of weeks ago. This is a movement that seeks to turn the world upside down, by turning our lives upside down for other people. What hasn’t changed though is.

You have community. You have purpose. You have a mission. You have truth.

Announce:

bcsm at night (Practice for the Movement) TONIGHT

Sept 26: Childcare- Earn $50 towards CIY

Oct 8: Tomeo House Party

I am _______________ and before we start, let me pray.”

*Pray for God to use what you have to say to move someone further along in their journey towards Jesus.*

Story Time

Tell a quick story that introduces the message

We are going to try an experiment. We will see how it goes. So I need four volunteers. Stay seated until you are asked to come up. Here is what I want you to do. I am going to ask you four to write one secret word on a sheet of paper. Really easy, right.

Here is the thing. I want you to make sure no one else can see what you are writing. ok? So write down one word that describes you. Just one word.

Have a cup of blue pens with one red pen in the bunch. Hopefully a couple of them will write with the red pen so you can talk about how we all want to be individuals. But their words will probably be things that make them unique so you can talk about that.

Connecting Questions

Catch Up

Where we have been in the series. Where we are going.

I am really excited for next week, when we are launching the movement! So for the last month or so we have been talking about this name change , but we needed to start by building the foundation. We said that the movement we are talking about is built on top of a community of Jesus’ apprentices. So in order to build the movement properly we needed to address what it means to be an apprentice or a disciple. We need to spend time with the teacher, become like the teacher and do what the teacher does. But it is not enough to do that alone or in isolation. In fact, I would say that it is impossible to be a true apprentice without being part of a community.

Why? God is what we call a Triune God. That means 3 in 1. One God, that is Father, Son and Spirit, who is always in some sort of intimate community with Himself. In Genesis it says that we were created in the image of that Triune God, to reflect his nature to everyone around us, so it is not good for us to be alone. So relationship and community are hugely important. Last week we talked about how important it is for us to invest in the community here in bcsm and BCC. But one of the questions we need to ask is, what kind of community are we supposed to be?

Because there are lots of different types of community. Your neighborhood is a community, right? Your school is a type of community. But even the relationships you have with your closest friends are a type of community. Marching band is another type of community, right? All of these communities are very different from one another, but they are all communities of one sort of another. So the question is what kind of community are we building here? Should we be like your sports team? Or should we be like the drama club?

To answer that we are going to zoom in on what Jesus says about the community.

Scripture

Read or summarize main Scripture with a little surrounding context. Ask a couple of questions to about the text.

Mark 3:31–35 ESV

And his mother and his brothers came, and standing outside they sent to him and called him. And a crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers are outside, seeking you.” And he answered them, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.”

So in Jesus’ mind, what kind of community are we supposed to build?

Tension/ Main Point

What is the rub? Create some questions and feeling in the minds of your students around the main point of the lesson.

We are supposed to be building a family here.

But here is the thing. We often will define ourselves by the types of communities we belong to, right? I am a soccer player. But rarely do we let the groups we belong to define us, right? And when we feel like a group is trying to define some part of our identity we shrink back in fear. In many ways, our highest goal in life is to be an individual. But that was not the case in Jesus’ day.

In Jesus’ day the main goal was to be a good group member. I will illustrate what I mean.

So pop quiz, in the Ancient Near East, how did marriage work? Did you run into a girl at the well, and you know, strike up a conversation, fall madly in love, start dating, propose and then invite all your family to your destination wedding in Egypt?

No. Your marriage was arranged. by ytur family Which to us sounds crazy, right? Where is the love and bla bla bla? The reason arranged marriages don’t make sense to us and they totally made sense to the people who willingly submitted, and some people still do this today, they willingly submit to this kind of a system. But all of that boils down to a simple difference in the way we view the world. In their system the group outweighs the individual. You had freedom to do whatever you wanted to do as long as it was something that was good for your group. Which meant that marriage was more about what was good for your family, it was more of a transaction between families, and less about what you wanted.

Did romantic love exist? For sure. But the foundation of their belief in group rights and individual rights were fundamentally different. Now it is important to note here, that we might look at this and say, this is wrong. I am an individual. I need to marry someone I like. The group does not just get to decide for me.

That is our culture speaking through you.

Now another side effect of this is, generally speaking, in this type of culture, your closest and most intimate relationships of your life would generally be with your sibling, not your spouse.

So when Jesus is saying about his apprentices, these are my siblings, when he is saying that they are his siblings above and beyond his real bloodline siblings, this is a huge deal. But not only does this go beyond Jesus’ nuclear family, his immediate family, one of the things Jesus says here is ANYONE who does God’s will will be in God’s family.

Remember the society he is talking to is all about the group. All about the community. So your immediate family was huge, but just think about the way the Old Testament talks about the nation of Israel. Jesus is saying, this family extends beyond the groups or factions or nations or categories that separate the groups. This kind of thinking was radical and would eventually be a huge part of why Jesus was killed. His culture did not like that. That rubbed them real wrong.

Response

We respond every week with an invitation to baptism and communion.

But here is the thing. Our culture doesn’t like what Jesus is saying here either. Because Jesus is not saying, “Look out for your individual needs. Be an individual. Forget about the strong group thing.” He is saying, do the strong group thing, but instead of your parents and siblings being your group, make it the church. We like to define ourselves as members of the church. But we don’t want the church to have any say in who we are.

We don’t believe anyone has a right to help me define my identity.

Jesus is saying, “ I do.” He is saying your church family does.

If you are there saying, “this does not sit right with me. I don’t like this” Hey I get it. I am there too. In our minds our greatest ideal is this rugged individualism. To be told, “maybe that is not the best way” feels wrong, it feels hard it feels uncomfortable.

But being an apprentice of Jesus is rarely comfortable.

Right so that was a lot of information, but so what? What does this have to do with us? How should we respond?

So the church is a family, what do we do about that? Treat it like you should treat your family. That means eating together, spending time with one another, loving each other, holding one another accountable to the standards of the family. So ask how are you doing in the area of sexual integrity? Do you need to repent of something or forgive someone? Do you believe and know and teach one another what the Bible teaches? Are you a peacemaker or a divider? Are you stuck in a rut of laziness?

Then you ask, how is the person sitting next to you doing in these areas? Do you know? Do you have the relational capital with that person to confront them and to help them work on eliminating that sin from thier life? Are you willing to hear criticism from them? To let them keep you accountable?

Being a family means we share resources and responsibilities. We bear one another’s burdens. We make decisions together. We help one another reach our goal, realize our dreams. And families are faithful to one another to death.

Maybe you think this is extreme. Like I come here with my parents and I kind of like feel comfortable here. The music is good. The games are fun. Whatever. I don’t even know everybody’s name in this room. And you want me to be faithful to these people to death.

No judgement here. That is the natural result of the way we have been brought up in our society. It totally makes sense that this is a big ask.

But if you have been baptised into the community here, this is your call. This is a big part of what you are supposed to do. If we want to even hope to be like Jesus, we have to invest in the community, in the family here.

But there is this amazing upside here. Because on some level everyone here has been damaged by the world in which we live. We have been taught on some level that we can not trust other people because we have been hurt by other people. There is not a person in this room that is not touched by that pain. This is the cure. This is the process that will heal those things in your life. That is why Christ gave us the church.

If we can get this kind of thing going here, if enough of you start to act this way in this group, you will have a part in a family, a community that loves you and cares about you. You will have a purpose within this family. You will have a role to play. And you will have a shared mission with the people around you, to start a movement that turns the world upside down by turning our lives upside down for other people!

Jesus knew that this would be hard for his culture. And he knows that it is hard for us. But he also knew that it would be worth it.

So what now? How do you get better at something that is hard? You practice. That is what bcsm@night is all about. So if you are thinking, this sounds hard, but I want to be a part of this community, I want to fuel the movement, come tonight so we can practice this together.

So Jesus attacked the foundational structures of their culture here, but it is like he is just keeping enough in place, he is keeping in the parts of their culture that undermine the very fabric of our cultural mindset. This is huge and revolutionary and radical. This is the kind of thing that gets Jesus killed.

We remember that sacrifice every week when we take communion. The juice represents his blood, the bread his body.

We will listen to a song now and if you need prayer this week, or if you want to declare your intention to be a true disciple of Jesus by being baptized, come see one of the adults. If you want to take communion to remember Jesus’ death, come up and grab that. Feel free to move during the song. But, if you don’t want to move and just want to listen to the lyrics of the song, or pray, or read the Bible you can do that as well. This is a time to just spend with Jesus.

Song

Pick a song that centers around the main theme of the lesson.

Children of God

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dicRawBiopM

Discussion

What is the absolute best thing that happened to you this week?

Awkward Family Photos

Have everyone pick the Awkward Family Photo that they most connect with. Once everyone has picked their photo tell them the photo you picked describes something about your family, what is it?

This is your community. Part of being a community is caring for one another and one way we can do that is by praying for each other. Does anyone have something we can celebrate with you this week? What is heavy for you this week?

Pray together

QOTD: What do you think it would take for bcsm to become the kind of family Eric was talking about?

Eric mentioned 9 things families do: they eat together, spend time with one another, love each other, hold one another accountable, they share resources and responsibilities, they bear one another’s burdens.,make decisions together, they help one another reach goal, and families are faithful to one another to death. Which of those things can you do with another person in this room, sometime this week?

Family Worship

Hey, welcome to Family Worship.

This week we talked about the church being a family.

How do you think BCC could operate more like a family?

We talked about 9 specific things that families do that the church should be doing: they eat together, spend time with one another, love each other, hold one another accountable, they share resources and responsibilities, they bear one another’s burdens, they make decisions together, they help one another reach goal, and families are faithful to one another to death. Many times in our culture it is uncomfortable for us to imagine the church doing all of these things in our lives. But this concept was uncomfortable for jesus’ first followers too, for different reasons. Many times following Jesus is about doing the uncomfortable things for the opportunity to participate in God’s work here on earth.

Read

Mark 3:31-35

Understand

Whom did Jesus designate as his family?

If your family operated the way BCC operates, what would change? What would stay the same?

Apply

Which one of the 9 things families do stuck out to you?

How can you do that this week or people you know from church?

We want to turn the world upside down, but that movement sits on top of a community, a family of Jesus’ apprentices. It does not work without that community operating this way.

Now here are your challenges for the week. Commit, as a family to doing at least one of these challenges this week.

Challenges

Fun: Next time you sit down for family dinner, take turns telling your favorite family memories.

Practice: Families eat together, spend time with one another, love each other, hold one another accountable, they share resources and responsibilities, they bear one another’s burdens, they make decisions together, they help one another reach goals, and families are faithful to one another to death. Write these 9 things on a piece of paper and put it on the fridge. When you notice your family doing these things, check it off the list. Just observe how these things play themselves out in your family. You may want to schedule a quick meeting near the end of the week to talk about who checked what off the list and why they felt like it was appropriate.

Do: Invite another family over for dinner.

Daily Devotions

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Spiritual Discipline of the week